Dear Team Mainline

I have been carp fishing for just over 12 months and so far I have used shelf life boilies. Recently I have started making my own boilies using Mainline ingredients, but I am unsure on the subject of freezing them. I quite often do 48-hour sessions and have boilies left over – is it safe to refreeze them?

Mike Annesley.

Hi Mike

Firstly, I must say you have undoubtedly made a great move by changing over to fresh/freezer baits. While there are some excellent shelf life baits on the market today, they tend to pale in comparison to a quality frozen food bait.

The subject of refreezing often tends to raise conflicting views and opinions from anglers, with some being happy to refreeze and others seeing it as a cardinal sin. I’ll share with you some of my thoughts on the topic, and then hopefully you can draw your own conclusions.

If your concerns are regarding the health of the carp, then there really is no need to worry because refrozen baits certainly won’t do any harm to their digestive system or overall well-being. If you have some concerns about the quality of the bait being impaired once it has been refrozen, then I would say refreezing just once or twice would have little effect on the bait’s quality or effectiveness.

However, it’s my belief that regular, or continual freezing/thawing could have a detrimental effect on the bait’s ingredients and attractors, which may in turn alter or reduce the nutritional profile. Baits that have been refrozen multiple times don’t have the same appearance, smell, or texture of the same bait that has been freshly rolled, and although they may still catch fish, I personally wouldn’t have any confidence in using a bait in this condition. I use what I consider to be the best bait available, and for me it makes sense to use it in its peak condition.

Also, when it comes to using quality food baits, it’s always been my belief that they get better the more they are applied, so if you are concentrating your angling attentions on one particular venue then my advice would be to introduce any leftover bait at the end of each session. The more often a carp is able to eat your bait in an unpressured situation, the more confidence they will gain in it, and will soon regard your chosen bait as a highly valued food source that is safe to eat. If, on the other hand, you are fishing a variety of different venues and prefer to keep your unused baits in reserve for another session, then an alternative to refreezing would be to air-dry them. Then it would simply be a case of rehydrating them in liquid attractors or lake water on your next trip.

One final point – if you are fishing 48 hours every week, then it would be perfectly fine to reuse any leftover bait from the previous session. After four or five days out of the freezer most baits start to turn white, which is generally caused by sugars coming to the surface of the bait. I have found that baits at this turning stage offer superb attraction, in fact I would even go as far as to say that some baits are at their best when in this condition. I regularly keep back a few handfuls of bait at the end of each session to use as hookbaits, or stringers on my next outing, by which time the now ‘white baits’ will be oozing attraction, and I’m in no doubt this little trick has helped me put a few extra fish on the bank over the years.

Hope that helps and good luck!

Mark Pitchers